SOUND NT JUDGE ME

THE LATEST ALBUM RELEASES RATED AND REVIEWED

LANA DEL REY

– NORMAN F***ING ROCKWELL

★★★★ ★

YEARS on from her breakthrough mega-hit Video Games, Del Rey now has the confidence to take a wide step away from the rest of her peers, and this is a jaunt through hazy, classic rock-inspired, ethereal, majestic, hypnotic, anthemic folkypop, her voice floating like chiffon across each intriguing track.

From the nearly 10-minute long mesmerising Venice Beach, filling your heart and soul with the warmth of a sun-dappled Californian sunset, to the melodic and retro-sounding The Greatest and the haunting Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have – But I Have It, Del Rey has proved any detractors wrong. If she even has any.

IGGY POP

– FREE

★★★★ ★

FREE is a work of performance art.

The titular track, also the first single, is a short jazz-like piece with Pop pondering over the top. “I wanna be free” is both a longing phrase and a swift change from his last sound.

There is a definite melancholy running through from beginning to end. At times an almost Bowieesque tone runs into the Beatnik throng-come-loungeroom-croon that is the second single James Bond.

This is a cracking entry in a 59-year career.

MILES DAVIS

– RUBBERBAND

★★★ ★★

RECORDED in 1985, it is perhaps the Chief’s most mythologised “lost” album. Ditched after three months’ work by his record label, Warner Bros, the tapes languished in the archives. They have finally been restored 28 years after his death by Davis’s drummer nephew Vince Wilburn Jr as well as original producers Randy Hall and Attala Zane Giles. Lalah Hathaway, daughter of Donny, and Ledisi take the parts originally written for Chaka Khan and Al Jarreau.

Gems like the suspenseful See I See and opener Rubber Band Of Life feature a potent mix of low-swung rhythms and Davis’s twisting trumpet runs. It’s more than a curio for die-hard fans.